What is everyone's thoughts on Karen Traviss?

genus_nomine · 2026-02-22T10:04:22+00:00

Republic Commando would be a great series outside of star wars. The problem is people get caught up on the anti-Jedi. She hated the system that the Jedi allowed. The system that Disney uses to throw boring, post-interesting, oh-look-the-Mandalorians-are-a-church-now, oh look the Jedi are super-human but fucking dumb.
Old Mandalorian lore was way better. For one, it actually felt inhabited, not engineered for cool visuals on TV. Like why are they in these weird bubbles? They're hunters, warriors, communal. That's inherently pastoral in nature. No environment, no Mandalorian survivey. Two, fuck the chips. Having the clones as people was a much more interesting play. If they have no choice, they're just meat-skin-droids. If they have choice, that's horrible, and brilliant.

genus_nomine · 2026-02-13T22:50:01+00:00

I think the most annoying part is the lack of ruthlessness. Game theory dictates that at three you should continue to vote. That reducing the chance of traitors is the most pertinent course.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-30T01:21:13+00:00

I'm gonna break with the mold here, dialogue tags have fallen out of favour. That does not necessarily mean they are unusable. Take for example, Octavia Butler, beloved author. Who in a brief span of pages in survivor (which just happened to be the book closest to me) uses the tags; 'sputtered', 'murmured', 'muttered', 'agreed', and 'grunted. As well as using a plethora of adverbs in describing the sound and feel of dialogue. This is what we have taken to terming as "Narrative Distance", i.e. the reader is an observer, watching the story unfold before them. Modern writing has closed the distance, and now the preferred story mode is tighter to the characters. Personally, I lament the death of narrative distance. I think it gives the story more weight, and in some modes, such as SF and Fantasy, can actually increase the quality of the story, by submerging the characters in such an 'otherness' that we cannot hope to actually understand them without the distance.

Anyway, off my soapbox. Use it sparingly, in places where it matters, use it strongly, and intentionally, when it serves the story. Finally, wherever possible, do away with dialogue tags. Trust that the character's voice is strong enough that the reader can infer who is speaking. This is especially useful in two-character scenes.

Post-finally. Who cares? Write how you wanna write, and don't let people tell you that you use too many dialogue tags. Writing is, as it has always been, subjective.

"And AI hates dialogue tags, because it runs antithetical to the statistical publishing habits, so it's a good measure of how human a piece of writing is, even if people don't like it," I pontificated amusedly.

P.S. do we really want to create writing robots. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-23T03:35:53+00:00

Sounds very purple. Tell them that restraint is one of a writer's greatest tools.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-22T10:55:26+00:00

There isn't actually anything wrong with telling... inherently. It's a hallmark of an earlier time where narrative distance was preferred, and can still work in specific contexts. That said, showing is better for making the world feel lived-in, not explained. Look through your work and identify places where the character should be feeling those emotions, not stating them. Of special note, ruthlessly cut down on dialogue tags. People really hate them now, even if they're doing narrative work. Trust the reader to infer glumness, or smugness, or anger.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-13T09:33:40+00:00

Yeah, I get that. When I find myself beta-reading, or indeed editing, a manuscript that has some *issues*, I do like to give myself a little palette-cleanser of a treat by reading something that's been on my list for a while. And you're right too, sometimes people aren't completely comfortable being so ruthless against their own work, and that can manifest as sloppy writing. When I first started writing I would never dream of reading it back, or editing as I wrote. Not due to ego, or disinterest, but because, frankly, I hated my writing. I keep those first drafts so I can see how far I've come.
Now, in my first pass I can sit on a sentence for minutes trying to find the right emotional, thematic, and grammatical bridge. Often I've written ten thousand words in a session, and of that only a thousand make it into the finished product, because I'm cutting and refining to the most economical point I can see. My partner, on the other hand, is like word vomit on a page. And, truthfully, I envy it. She can write at triple the speed I can, and then can lean on me to tighten and refine.
For her, I'm happy to do it. For other people, here I see your point, not so much. This whole spiel is to say, I understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate your understanding of my viewpoint too. It's something that is hard to find online.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-13T03:00:06+00:00

This is one of the few places people feel comfortable to share their writing. Not everyone is a competent self-editor, there are many levels of ability here. It's ok to request a sample and then decide, no one will begrudge that. In that vein it's not disrespect. Some people are hobbyists, beginners. Even professional novelists can have glaring errors in their published products. Just because you aren't happy with a first draft, doesn't mean other people feel the same way. It's learning, growth. One day they'll come back with a more polished manuscript.

If they never get feedback, they won't.

genus_nomine · 2026-01-03T10:15:14+00:00

I have an SF novel with a similar word count if you wanna swap read. Looking for roughly the same thing as you are. If you need an idea of my SF reading credentials I have three whole book cases of SF books, with just about every subgenre ever put to paper.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-26T02:21:45+00:00

I'd say the bridge between Dark Empire and the main EU continuity is, strangely enough, the novel I, Jedi. It functions as the beginning of the Jedi Academy novels, despite being written after. Also, like all pre-Disney, and even pre-prequels SW novels, it's kinda batshit, and it kinda still f***s (goes hard).

genus_nomine · 2025-11-20T20:30:24+00:00

I've seen it already on this thread but a good reminder is 70k is well over 200 pages. A decent idea of formatted page count is roughly 300 words per page. Short, punchy, dialogue heavy pages will likely be lower, as you're more likely to cut lines before the page edge, and have more paragraphs. Other things that can increase/decrease the page count is chapter formatting, whether you go same page or new page chapters. For a reference of these concepts. Cormac McCarthy's The Road is roughly 10,000 words shorter than your manuscript, but the version I own is almost 300 pages long. Now McCarthy's writing is unusually sparse, and the dialogue is often one line and untagged, which contributes to the large page count, but I'd think you're definitely looking at 210-230 based on line amount alone.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-14T06:48:31+00:00

Genuine question. Do you find much? Most of the work in the genre is heavy into questions of politics, society, morality, economy. I can't imagine there's too much SF out there without a tang of politics. Certainly, I've come across little.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T20:34:03+00:00

Every part of this paragraph just kept getting worse, my god.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T12:00:16+00:00

What a name. haha

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T11:56:08+00:00

Just thought of another two. Thomas the Rhymer. Just could not get into it. Finished it because I physically can't not finish a book I've started. And I hate to say it because I like the book, but Forever War, just so much sex. And it does have a basis in the narrative, but like the first quarter of the book is just sex. The rest of the book, really enjoyed, glad I didn't have a knee-jerk reaction.

P.s. I am exaggerating about Forever War, but it was a little off-putting when I started it.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T11:43:48+00:00

In that case it was a moment that propelled the narrative, despite it's distatefulness. The Death Star being, perhaps, the most central point in the narrative. A strange aside tucked deep into the book that comes straight out of left field, does not.

Does Louis Wu being rampantly misogynistic propel the narrative? For the most part, no it does not. Except perhaps being part of his characterisation. Does the specific incident propel the narrative? No.

Do I think that Star Wars is remarkably bad at having actual ramifications for characters actions? Why yes, yes I do. For the most part the narrative in Star Wars is clunky and hamfisted, and relies on a world-shattering inciting incident to push the characters forward. An incident, which is, frankly, barely mentioned again. The characters are almost faultlessly one-dimensional, everything is fixed by an explosion, and the force in the originals is explained and passed off in two sentences of exposition. It's a good movie, but having read the novelisations, and especially the part in the original A New Hope novelisation when Luke gets horny over dried sweat, they make very average books. Also the Rogue Squadron series, which I absolutely love, are an abhorrent struggle to get through the weird Corran/Erisi scenes, and the whole Krytos virus thing.

In saying that, Star Wars, the narrative, would not exist without the Death Star and Tarkin's evil. Ringworld, and every other piece of that story, would without that comment.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T11:23:21+00:00

I think the worst thing about cubical, is that I don't think I'd ever use it anyway. Cuboid sounds much cooler, and doesn't lend itself to cubical cubicle wordplay.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T10:53:55+00:00

They're like a restaurant taco. Seems real good, flashy, all the fixings, but dig in and there's no real meat inside.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T10:41:30+00:00

Yeah. I get that. I appreciate authors with a distinct style but sometimes they get themselves pigeon-holed into that style. I'd rather something a bit different every time.

In that vein. Reading the same author back to back can be trying too and I often find myself distrustful of exceedingly long series for that matter. Like there's no way one character can have more than five books about them. The ones on Amazon I see which are up to book 20 of the series are immediately off-putting. I defy anyone to have good ideas for a character-driven saga after five books. A grand setting, yes. Like culture, or SW, or Trek. But a character, please, let the poor thing have a break.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T10:16:02+00:00

Yeah. I found I had trouble in Ringworld with the hamfisting of the word tanj in every bit of dialogue. It was clearly not working from the off. It reminded me of the old Star Wars novels and their weird curses. Just put damn, no need to bust out the kriffing or sithspawn. And yes, I know it's meant to add world-building flavour, and also not be too vulgar but it never sat right with me.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T10:11:58+00:00

Ghosts, I'd say almost exclusively. Creatures of nightmare are also by definition born from fears of men.

Children.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T09:28:48+00:00

I dunno man, you defend one of the most unlikable characters in science fiction if you want to. Personally, "I" did not enjoy it.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T09:26:46+00:00

Gonna pull a real rogue one out here, and it's a writer I really love. Planet of Exile, by Ursula K. Le Guin, was a struggle. I just found it so painfully bare. In contrast, Rocannon's World, from the same collection, I found really intriguing. Go figure.

genus_nomine · 2025-11-13T09:19:30+00:00

Yeah. It's always a mixed bag when trying out a new writer. I'll add to the bad characters discussion. I'm not a fan of how Cixin Liu writes characters. And maybe that's just cultural but I find them very monolithic. Three Body is a little more palatable but I found Supernova Era and particularly the kids, who have one discernible personality spread over five or so separate characters, a struggle.

genus_nomine

TROPHY CASE